A Super-Soldier for the Modern World

Chapter Nine

Four days had passed and there was still no sign of Captain Rogers or Agent Carter. As much as they tried, none of the SHIELD agents could get the AIM agents that had been taken into custody to talk. They hadn't eliminated themselves either, but they definitely were keeping silent on what had happened in that hallway. Coulson was starting to think that they didn't really know either. Coulson and the rest of SHIELD were no closer to finding the two of them than they had been the day they had disappeared.

Coulson was a lot of things as he waited for the security camera footage to be pulled up on his monitor. He was angry, impatient and honestly, he felt helpless since nothing he was doing was accomplishing anything in the short or long run. It had taken those four days to break the encryption that AIM had put on the security system and that simple fact was enough to make Coulson extremely irritable.

All of this, combined with the fact that he was still in charge of SHIELD was making the usually unflappable agent very unhappy. In fact, he was visibly shaken sometimes and that irritated him even further.

A commotion behind him caught his attention and he paused the security footage that had begun to finally play and he turned to see what it was.

"What is this that I hear that my goddaughter and Cap are missing?" Tony Stark raged. He had dark sunglasses on and his hair was just plain disheveled, not the artistically messy way he usually wore it. If Tony Stark could look like hell, well, this was probably as close as it probably got.

"Mr. Stark," Coulson started in an impeccably measured voice despite his own internal disheveled-ness.

"Coulson, I want to know what's going on. Where's Fury? Where's Amanda and where is Rogers?"

This was not a conversation that Coulson wanted to have on the main floor of SHIELD headquarters. It was not information people with the lowest security clearance needed to hear.

"Please stream this to my office," Coulson said to the SHIELD agent to his left. "Mr. Stark and I will review the security footage together. Mr. Stark, please follow me." Coulson started to move away from the main room of the

Tony didn't say anything; he just started to follow Coulson out of the room.

They continued down the hall and Coulson led the two of them into what used to be Nick Fury's office.

"You've taken over his office?" Tony asked. "I mean, I don't get along with the man all the time, but I would never do this," he said with a sweeping motion his hand. "Where the hell is he anyway?" Tony said as he sat down in one of the chairs.

"Okay, we had decided not to tell you all this because of your recent surgery…"

"I don't care about my recent surgery. I'm healthier than I've been in a long time and I want to know what is going on with SHIELD," Tony yelled. "Where is Amanda? I've been trying to get a hold of her for days."

"Let's just watch the security footage," Coulson said, directing Stark's attention to the monitor in the office.

The two men watched as the footage began to play. There was Amanda kicking the crap out of a couple of AIM agents and then one caught her in the side with a knife. Tony surprised himself with his own gasp of horror at the blood that was coming down Amanda's side. They saw Steve check on her and then go back to fighting his own AIM agents.

The cameras must have changed because a second later, they were in another hallway and now Steve and Amanda were significantly outnumbered by the agents in their ugly beekeeper suits. They had a huge gun aimed at the both of them and then there was a blast of energy. A blast of blue light hit both Cap and Amanda and then they were gone.

"What the hell just happened?" Tony asked. He was up out of his seat and closer to the screen. "Play it again."

The both of them watched the footage three more times and it never made any more sense.

"They were just there one second and then gone the next," Tony said. "That doesn't make any sense at all. And it's not physically possible."

"I was brought back from the dead and a battery implanted in your chest has been keeping you alive for the last several years," Coulson said. "And that's just the tip of the iceberg of things that have happened, so I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the possibility of them just disappearing into thin air."

"Okay, so what is our next step? Which by the way, you still need to explain how you became the director of SHIELD…"

"Well, Fury up and disappeared," Coulson said. "And Amanda was left in charge as acting-director. And when she left with Captain Rogers to go to this AIM facility, she left me in charge. But," a suspicious grin spread across Coulson's face. "I think I'm going to put you in charge since you're in such good shape."

Tony sat up in his chair. "What the hell are you talking about? Did they cross some wires up there when they brought you back?" Tony asked. "Because that's probably the most ridiculous thing you've ever said."

"Nope, I think you can run things and I'll go back to doing what I do best," Coulson told him.

"And what's that?" Tony challenged.

"Well, it's definitely not running the organization," Coulson said mysteriously. "So, Director Stark, what would you like to do first?"

"You're fired," Tony said in a deadpan voice.

Coulson smiled, chuckled once, and then exited the office. He had work to do.

Tony moved towards the desk chair and sat down. He fiddled with some buttons and another monitor opened up. It was password encrypted and he seriously doubted anyone had ever tried to break into Fury's personal files. But uncovering the many secrets of Nick Fury was going to have to wait; he needed to find Amanda and Cap.

… …

In Germany, the two Steves were attempting to keep a low profile around camp while both of them wanted to be out and about.

The Steve that belonged at that period of time wanted to be out where he could be seen because he had a war to win. He, truthfully, had no idea how to handle what was happening with a second version of himself and Peggy's niece. He also really wanted to be out doing anything other than thinking about it because he was jealous of himself.

It was weird watching himself. And it was especially weird watching himself interacting with Amanda. If he didn't see it with his own eyes, he would have never believed that eventually he ended up intimate with a woman, let alone a Carter woman.

It was just so easy between them; so effortless. He'd seen his future self kissing Amanda Carter and was kind of proud of himself. Right now, this Steve was still struggling to find the right words to say to Peggy; he couldn't even imagine doing with her was the other Steve was doing with Amanda.

The other, modern Steve was holed up in a secure laboratory with Howard Stark and Peggy Carter. While he absolutely hated every second of being stuck in a room during the war, he knew that he didn't have a place there anymore. He knew that his counterpart had to run the show and figure things out for himself.

And everything aside, it was nice to be back talking to Howard, especially now that he was jealous of his girlfriend. However, it was weird as hell spending time with Peggy now. Things were awkward and he didn't know how to fix it.

While Peggy was on the other side of the room, Howard asked the really meaningful questions, the things he really wanted to know.

"So you're actually cohabitating with her?" Howard asked as he studied his notes on the HYDRA weapons.

"Uh," Steve paused as he looked at Peggy out of the corner of his eye. He watched her body stiffened slightly, but she said nothing and she did not look in his direction. "Yes, basically we're living together. She kind of just moved in."

"She just moved in? How is that possible?" Howard asked.

"You know her now, would you stop her?" Steve asked.

Howard grinned. "I wouldn't want to, my man," he said. "But you haven't proposed yet?" Howard asked. "Are you going to? Or did you propose and she said no?" Howard asked.

Steve glanced in Peggy's direction again and she was still as she waited for his response.

"No, I haven't proposed yet. It hasn't been easy since I woke up from the ice," Steve explained. "It's been a crazy few months," he smiled. Steve started thinking about all of his memories with Amanda, the bad and the good, and they made him smile. He couldn't help it.

"Quit smiling like that, Cap, you're making me uncomfortable," Howard said.

"Gentlemen, can we focus?" Peggy asked, redirecting the topic.

"Right, sorry," Steve replied.

"So, you're positive that they were using HYDRA weaponry?" Howard asked.

Steve nodded his head. "I'm sure of it. Granted, its 70 years in the future, but it's the same tech," Steve explained. "They've used it against me enough times; I'd recognize it anywhere," he said, remembering the storage room on the SHIELD helicarrier.

"Okay, well, we have plenty of HYDRA garbage to work with…"

"It's not garbage, Stark," Peggy admonished.

Howard rolled his eyes and held up his hands in a surrendering motion. "I apologize, Ms. Carter," Howard said. "But it's not as…"

"Yes, it is," Amanda said as she walked into the room. "They are using something way more powerful than what we have and even though I'm not a genius, I can see that," she said. "I realize that you're downplaying its importance because you don't understand it either, but we can't really count anything out right now."

"The tesseract is nothing that you want to mess with," Steve said. "It opened a portal into space and aliens were in New York."

Both Peggy and Howard stared at him in utter disbelief.

"Did he hit his head?" Howard asked. "Maybe it's something to do with the serum…maybe it broke something up there when he got all…grown up."

"Mr. Stark, I wish I couldn't confirm his story, but unfortunately, there were actual aliens in New York…the Chitauri. And they made a really big mess," Amanda said.

Amanda was extremely irritable herself that day. So she didn't cause any suspicion, she was working in the infirmary…as a nurse. Being a nurse wasn't the bad part; that she actually enjoyed. What she didn't like was the fact that the army doctors were smart, but weren't willing to listen to what she had to say.

Even though it had been a couple of days, they were still dealing with the remaining injuries of the rescued members of the 107th infantry. She knew how to help these men and the doctors wouldn't let her do anything but hold the tools.

Amanda was now standing in the room in a bloody nurses uniform.

"Not your blood, right?" Steve asked as she came to stand next to him.

"Not this time," Amanda replied. "But if one more doctor here tells me to go back to holding the…never mind, it's all right," she said, taking a deep, calming breath. "Any progress?"

"Are you rushing me? Is she rushing me?" Howard asked. "I think she's rushing me and I don't work that way," he finished. "Someone should tell her that."

Amanda rolled her eyes. "Tony said Loki was the diva," she said to Steve. "I asked if there was any progress," Amanda replied. "I didn't say anything else and I didn't mean anything else."

"She's just like you," Howard said, turning to Peggy. "Yay!" he added sarcastically.

Both Amanda and Peggy fixed him with a dirty look that quieted him down immediately.

"What I have managed to accomplish today, in between my constant interruptions of you, and you and you and the other you is basically…nothing," Howard said.

"Nothing?" Amanda said.

"Oh, so you think trying to invent time-travel is easy?" Howard asked. "I'll just let you take over, then," he finished, setting his pen and paper down.

"Don't be ridiculous," Amanda told him.

"Can I get back to work, then?" Howard asked.

"No, I want to know what you've figured out," Amanda said. "Please tell me what you know. And then I'll tell you if you're wrong."

"Aren't you just a darling," he smiled under his mustache.

"We might get further if you would just explain what you do know," Peggy said in a level voice.

"I have figured out that this is weird as hell," he said. "Also, have you decided what we're going to tell Philips when he realizes I'm not doing what the US Army is actually paying me to do?"

Peggy nodded and moved towards Stark to try to explain the story to him as well as calm him down.

Amanda looked back at Steve caught him smiling at her.

"What's the smile for, Captain?" Amanda smiled back.

"It's just the first memory I have of you…you were in an outfit just like this," he said, putting his hand on her waist. "Last night was lonely without you," he whispered into her ear.

"When did you get so handsy, Captain America?" she whispered back.

"I just missed you. That's all," he told her.

They were in their own world for a second and did not notice that both Peggy and Howard were looking at the both of them.

"So, Cap," Howard said, bringing them into the present once more.

"Yes," he replied, addressing Howard.

"What else was happening at the precise moment that you ended up here?" Howard asked. "I need to know exactly."

"Everything was normal. Well, as normal as a raid on an AIM lab could be," Steve said, shrugging his shoulders.

"At least the building wasn't on fire this time," Amanda said.

"You got stabbed instead, so the building didn't need to be on fire this time," Steve told her.

"Damsel in distress…guilty as charged," Amanda said.

"Well, you can rescue me next time," Steve told her.

"Ahem," Howard cleared his throat to get their attention.

"I really can't handle all this cutesy bull anymore. You're going to have to quit it or leave," he said. "It's distracting and a constant reminder that I don't have a lady friend here."

Amanda laughed.

But her laughter quickly died out when they heard a voice coming towards them.

"There was a guard posted at the door when I came down here," Amanda told them. "I only got down here because I'm your cousin," she said to Peggy.

"Ugh, they have to know that this is my lab!" Howard said. "Why would they come down here?"

A set of footsteps was coming down the hall focused them all.

"Amanda!" Bucky's voice called. He sounded a little drunk.

Amanda's eyes went wide at the sound of her name and she started to move towards the doorway so she could stall him. But Steve caught her and stopped her.

"Amanda!" Bucky called again.

"I'll go stall him," Amanda whispered.

But it was too late. Bucky rounded the corner and was now looking at the four of them.

"Amanda! We're going to have a little party and we want you to go," Bucky said. "How'd you get down here before me, Steve?" he asked, noticing him a second later.

"What do you mean?" Steve said, attempting to play on the man's drunkenness.

It worked. "It doesn't matter, anyway, you don't want to hang out with the Boy Scout, Nurse Carter," Bucky said suggestively. "Come into town with us and let me buy you a drink."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Steve said. "Buck, you're drunk; you should just go and lay down."

"Why don't you let Amanda answer for herself?" Buck said. "You've already got Agent Carter over there, you think you get Amanda, too?"

Amanda opened her mouth to say something, but another set of footsteps caught their attention. A second later, the other Steve rounded the corner and looked at them all.

"What the hell?" Bucky said, looking at the both of them.

"Shit," Amanda hissed.

…

Author's Note: Okay, thanks for patiently waiting….what did you think?